Metro’s general manager said the transit system was manually checking all of the some 3,000 circuits in the rail system after a National Transportation Safety Board investigation pinpointed one as having “anomalies” along the tracks near where a train slammed into another Monday, killing nine and injuring more than 70.
The NTSB said Thursday that the sensor system, which helps control the speed and placement of trains, did not detect a test train standing in the same spot as the train that was hit. That indicates it may not have been able to sense that a train was stopped on the tracks ahead.
Metro had worked on the circuit this month and repaired it last year, according to the NTSB. Citing the ongoing investigation, Metro officials declined to say whether the work was part of preventive or corrective maintenance. They also declined to specify how often those circuits were typically inspected.
As of Thursday morning, Deputy General Manager Gerald Francis said nearly 10 percent of the circuits had been checked out since Tuesday. He said he was not aware of any anomalies with any other circuits.
But transit officials warned that those inspections of all the other circuits, plus new rules of having the trains operated manually, instead of automatically, would slow down the system.
“We ask the public to be patient with us, but this is something we must do,” General Manager John Catoe said.
The transit system is following its largest union’s demand to put as many as possible of its oldest rail cars, the 1000 Series, in between newer, stronger rail cars on each train, instead of as front or rear cars.
The lead rail car on the striking train in Monday’s crash was a 1000 Series car that crumpled to one-third of its original size. Three years ago, the NTSB questioned the “crash worthiness” of that model and called on the transit system to retrofit or replace them.
To replace all the cars would cost an estimated $900 million, but that’s just a small fraction of the $11.3 billion that Catoe said the transit system needed over the next decade.
He met Thursday with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Transit Administration officials about the need for additional money to solve problems with the rail system. Metro is eyeing extra stimulus money or the $150 million pledged by Congress.
“I didn’t walk away with a suitcase of money, but I did walk away with a commitment from Secretary LaHood,” Catoe told the Metro board.
Investigators also found more evidence that operator Jeanice McMillan tried to stop her train before impact, with the tracks showing 125 feet of markings “consistent with heavy braking.”
Metro officials said her cell phone was found in her backpack, making it unlikely that the 42-year-old novice operator was distracted by a cell phone.
Donations for operator’s son
Metro has established a memorial scholarship fund for educating the children of employees who die while on duty. Jeanice McMillan, the train operator who was killed Monday when her train crashed into an idling train, has a son who just completed his first year of college.
Metro asks tax-deductible donations be made out to the
Metro Memorial Scholarship Fund/CFNCR and sent to:
Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
Attn: Starlette Hunter
1201 15th St. NW, Suite 420
Washington, D.C., 20005
Return to service
Riders packed onto Red Line trains Thursday as service resumed — slower and intermittently — for the first time since the deadliest crash in Metro’s history.
The closed section of the Red Line near the Takoma station reopened along one track for part of the day, but other problems arose when two unrelated cracked rails were found elsewhere in the system. That meant delayed trips for riders throughout the day.
More slowdowns are expected as Metro workers inspect every circuit in the rail system after federal investigators found one with anomalies near the crash site.
